“At last FREEDOM, a thousand times FREEDOM! Of course these scarce weekends of communion shouldn’t have to be this desperate and crazy, but what else should I be expected to do? Make it easier for them? Make it easier for me?” The answers escaped her, but for now she’d be ok.

Ring – Barbie sits on Solitaire Ring

“Mum look at my ring! Mum… come look at my ring…” “Oh Barbie, why does it always have to be like this? It’s only a couple of days… Why can’t we just enjoy the weekend and leave the madness behind?” “Mum, just come see it! My ring’s sparkling!”

Water – Barbie wears Thin Eternity Rings as chokers

Mum’s words continued ringing in her head: “I said she’d take you and then leave you. And she took you, and then left you.” As it should be expected, a shower can only clean so much, and as far as Barbie is concerned it’s Spring time!

Shopping – Barbie wears Eternity Chain Drop Earrings as shopping bags

Michelle was never given to spontaneous acts of generosity. This reality left Barbie on her own, a forced independence, at times useful, but mostly lonely. No time to change it now though, the weekend with her parents is approaching and new armours are required.

Wall – Barbie wears Thick Eternity Ring as hair band

Like so many times before Barbie approached with caution, this wall is both support and dread, a physical separation between past and present, colony and independence, and as the years go by it’s imposing stability has given way to holes and permeations. Could these be dangerous signs? Scary forewarnings?

Scan – Radiant Bangle scans Barbie

“I’m not sick! This constant threat of what might eventuate! Leave me alone!!” The ring incident, as her Dad now referred to it, brought about renewed worries about Barbie’s mental health. For her the only way of finding any tumours depended on the machine’s capacity to scan all 3 of them together.

Hula Hooping – Barbie hula hoops with the Thin Eternity Bangle

She was never good at it, but somehow the rotating circumference was so damned attractive… A centre of attraction like the galaxy’s gravitational Sun surrounded by other manically spinning galaxies. And then the annoying disk drops to the ground, a simple reminder of greater forces at play.